


Quantum State

by zeteram



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, more shitposting about game mechanics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22394359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeteram/pseuds/zeteram
Summary: “You used the Corridors of Time to read my diary,” Osiris deadpanned.The Guardian has a couple of questions about what he found, and Osiris has answers.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 38





	Quantum State

“Hey, Osiris. Incoming.” Sagira’s voice brought Osiris back to the present from deep within his meditation, and he nodded to acknowledge the point. Babysitting the Sundial had the annoying consequence of being interrupted while he was working, but strangely enough he found he didn’t mind it as much as he would have, once. Perhaps it was because his work in the current timeline was just as important as monitoring simulations.

Either way, he nodded to the Hunter who approached. “Back for more, Guardian? The Corridors of Time grow unstable. If you’ve anything left to seek in them, you must make haste.”

The Hunter rubbed the back of his neck. “Actually, I had a question about that.” Osiris nodded to prompt him to continue. Hunters were notoriously bad at getting to the point sometimes. “The things we find in there--are they real?”

Osiris crossed his arms, attention focusing sharply on the Guardian now. “Time and reality share a complicated relationship which would take several years to properly explain, but if it were immutable--which I suspect to be your true question--recruiting you and your companions to fight the Cabal would be a pointless exercise. The past can be changed within certain constraints; the present and future have none.” It took immense power to change the past, power that still whispered to anyone who got too close to the Sundial’s core and for which he had paid a terrible price, but every time his communication lines lit up with another message from Saint-14, he was reminded of how very worth it this all was.

“It’s the future I’m worried about,” admitted the Hunter, sounding hesitant.

“It is always in flux,” Osiris replied without hesitation. “Some would have you think I am a prophet, but there are futures I have seen that will never come to pass because of Guardians like yourself.” He pauses for a moment, frowning under his scarf. “And there are tragedies I was unable to avert. I have wondered if I had a part in causing them.”

He was, in fact, able to say with a high degree of certainty that he _had_ caused some of them, at least before he learned to couch his ‘prophecies’ in riddle and verse. Making them oblique enough to cause uncertainty while still providing some kind of warning was a tricky balance, one he failed at as often as he succeeded. He’d seen Dominus Ghaul, for example, but not how he could be stopped.

“But,” he continued a little more gently, noting the Hunter still looked unsure, “if it could not be changed, I wouldn’t bother sending you into the projected future using the Sundial.”

“So if I found, say, the grave of somebody important in the Corridors of Time, but I knew they weren’t dead yet, it...might not mean it has to end like that?”

Osiris gave the Guardian a dead-eyed stare. Were all Hunters this stupid? “You already did,” he snapped. What did he think the Sundial was _for_? “Unless you’ve forgotten bringing me Saint-14’s dead Ghost and returning with a living man full of Light.”

The Hunter looked startled. “Oh! Oh, right. Uh, thanks, Osiris.”

For what, pointing out how time loops worked? Osiris pulled his puzzle cube out of storage and started playing with it to distract himself from getting angry at the Guardian, who, after all, didn’t deal with this kind of thing constantly. “You were in and out of there two dozen times,” he said, already less irritated because half his mind had something else to focus on. “Is that what you found? A grave?”

The Hunter nodded. “And, uh. Some stuff about you and Saint.”

Osiris blinked, momentarily overcome by astonishment.

“The Dark Ages, and how you met, and when you were the Vanguard Commander,” he continued. “And...and how you felt about the Speaker, and when Saint disappeared.”

“You used the Corridors of Time to read my diary,” Osiris deadpanned, glad the Guardian couldn’t hear Sagira’s silent cackle.

“I didn’t mea--okay, so I did mean to, cause I went back a lot to read the rest of it,” the Guardian said quickly. “But, like. It’s not like _you_ talk about it!”

Osiris placed a palm against his forehead. “Is this the part where I threaten you to stop spying on my personal life, or did you learn much that already?”

“Just one question,” he pleaded, to which Osiris growled at him to continue. “The last entry. I don’t think it happened yet, but I kinda want it to. Do I...tell you what it is, or would that mess it up?”

“A perplexing question,” Osiris said softly. A history of himself and Saint with a chapter as yet unwritten? One that a Guardian he can call _friend_ , who he knows has a vested interest in both of them, wants to see happen? Interesting, indeed. “Especially as I’ve just admitted to you how difficult it is to bring a particular future to pass.”

“Right. So.”

“I do not have the time to teach you how to view the paths we are on, nor how to ensure they lead to the destination you seek,” Osiris said, not unkindly. “You must use your judgment.”

“Okay.”

“Guardian?” The Hunter looked up, and Osiris’s eyes crinkled in a smile. “For what it is worth, I trust your judgment.”

“...That’s worth a lot. Thanks, Osiris.” He waved, already starting to head out. “I’ll see you around!”

Osiris nodded back, taking up his sentinel position next to the Sundial again, wondering how much longer he’d be there.

**Author's Note:**

> All I'm saying is that my Hunter ships it as much as I do because he wants his grandpas to be happy.


End file.
